This blog on Texas education contains posts on accountability, testing, college readiness, dropouts, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues with additional focus at the national level.

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Saturday, August 20, 2005

Pro-Immigrant Rights Rally Sept. 17 in Austin

Saturday, Aug. 20, 2005

Students, Friends, and Colleagues,

What strikes me is the license that any congressman feels he has in order to make the following statement: "If you pick up 50 or 100 of them (illegal immigrants), you can call the National Guard," he said. "Put them in tents." (see article on Tom DeLay’s comments below.) Does this not hearken back to the political rhetoric our darkest hours in this nation? The internment of the Japanese? The forced reservation experience for American Indians? The conquest and colonization of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans? And slavery of West African people?

Just round ‘em up. Contain and quarantine ‘em. Imprison ‘em.

Such language has historically justified enormous atrocities from which our nation is still healing. This is the opportunistic language of division and hatemongering rather than of peace, tolerance, and reconciliation to this shamefully racist and classist legacy. The long arms of the past reach into the present with the vigilantism and threats of violence we are witnessing through the Minutemen along our borders (also see links to several articles below), as well as through attempts to eliminate the supposed “break” that House Bill 1403 (undocumented immigrant) students get from their out-of-state tuition waiver in order for them to go to college. Many, if not most, of these students have lived the bulk of their young lives in the U.S. and see themselves as American.

It is also convenient to not mention how immigrants/immigrant labor, documented and undocumented, keeps the middle class afloat in America without which serious political and economic crises would likely occur. Incalculable are the number of members of both the business community and the middle class who literally rely on this labor in order to either make ends meet or generate profit. Honest and informed dialogue, rather than inflammatory rhetoric, is not only what’s needed, but it would expose the far right’s desperate need to find a boogey man in order to not to have to deal frankly with the fundamental issue of ethnic/racial and class-based inequalities. If we really wanted to get rid of immigrant labor, all of our citizens would get paid a living wage.

Also, mark your calendars for Sat. Sept. 17 as there’s a pro-immigrant rights march at 4 PM that starts out at Riverside and Congress and goes to the capitol. If you don’t want to march, meet at the rally at the capitol between 5:30 and 7:00PM. I intend to do both with my family. I also urge the academic community to find ways to respond lest we unwittingly sanction such extremism through our non-response.

We should all be very concerned....

-Angela

Please join the UT Longhorn League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council, #65533; Jovenes Inmigrantes por un FuturoMejor de UT Austin, Coaliciion Internacional de los Mexicanos en el Exterior, TexasCriminal JusticeCoalition's University Leadership Initiative, Casa del Inmigrate (Dallas) and grass roots groups from across the Lone Star State for a march to the south steps of the state Capitol.

ROSENBERG - At a town-hall meeting hosted by the Houston-area LULAC, several speakers disagreed sharply with comments made recently by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who proposed a tougher stance on U.S. immigration practices.

"Mexicans, Central Americans and South Americans are not bombing anything strategic in America. They are here to work," said League of United Latin American Citizens member Joel Salazar.

Salazar and others at the meeting, held at the Rosenberg Civic and Convention Center, described DeLay's comments as "extreme" and said immigrants make a positive contribution to the U.S. economy.

"The economy is fueled by their presence and performance," Salazar said.

In an Aug. 4 speech to Fort Bend County Republicans, DeLay said he does not support educating illegal immigrants or having their U.S.-born children automatically become citizens.

DeLay encouraged local police to round up illegal immigrants and said federal officials could find places to house them, even if it meant putting them in tents.

Jose Jiminez, LULAC's deputy director, said the organization disagrees with DeLay on three main points.

He said LULAC does not think illegal immigrants should be rounded up and housed in tent cities.

"Here in Harris County we don't even put our criminals who go through our justice system in tents," he said.

Joe Vail, a University of Houston law professor, said gathering up those suspected of illegal immigration poses legal problems, such as racial profiling.

"In our country you can't stop somebody and detain them unless you've got a reasonable suspicion they are doing something wrong," Vail said.

Vail said DeLay's comments about not extending citizenship to American-born children of illegal immigrants runs counter to the 14th Amendment.

LULAC supports the public education of the children of illegal immigrants, and Vail said the U.S. Supreme Court agreed.

One of the speakers was Mary Almendarez, president of LULAC Council 402, who called DeLay's remarks "racist" and "unacceptable."

"What we have here is a congressman gone wild," she said.

DeLay spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty said DeLay believes immigration to be a complex and important issue that must be addressed by Congress.

"Congressman DeLay has made his position on illegal immigration clear. We must secure our borders, enforce current federal law and not reward illegal behavior," she said.

Speaking to a packed house of Fort Bend County Republican faithful,DeLay said he supported the concept behind legislation introduced byU.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., that would withhold federal fundingfrom cities such as Houston that refuse to enforce immigration law.

"It greatly concerns me that the police chief in Houston, Texas, hascreated a sanctuary in Houston by announcing that he is not going toenforce our laws," the Sugar Land Republican said, in response to aquestion about Tancredo's bill.

"That is unacceptable, and we hope to address it through Tancredo'slegislation or other legislation."

Since 1992, a Houston Police Department policy has officiallyforbidden officers from enforcing immigration laws in most cases.

Mayor Bill White has said he supports continuing the policy, becausehe believes immigration is a federal matter and he wants to freepolice up to protect the city from violent criminals.

Police in Katy also have a court-ordered policy forbidding them fromenforcing immigration laws. The order came as the result of a federallawsuit filed after a 1994 police operation to pick up day laborers.

DeLay, who is seen as a key player on upcoming immigration reformlegislation in Congress, said he would support a guest-worker programthat would allow immigrants to come legally to the United States andthen go home. But he said the government needs to step up enforcementof immigration laws first.

"Before Congress takes any significant legislation, we must secure ournation's borders," he said.

Two major proposalsTwo major pieces of immigration are expected to be considered whenCongress returns in September.

One proposal, sponsored by Senators Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and JohnMcCain, R-Ariz., would allow some illegal immigrants to work towardbecoming legal residents and then citizens of the United States.

Senators John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon Kyle, R-Ariz., propose atougher bill that would allow illegal immigrants to become guestworkers, meaning they would have to go home after working here threeyears or more.

Cornyn and Kyle also propose tougher enforcement, including increasedpatrols at the border and new requirements on employers seeking tohire workers.

DeLay indicated that he would support legislation even stricter thanCornyn's. He does not believe illegal immigrants already in thecountry should qualify, and he does not believe guest workers shouldbe allowed to bring their families.

Asked if he would support McCain-Kennedy, he said: "It's not going todo very well in the House, I'll guarantee that."

Places for detaineesDeLay noted that until now, even the federal government has notrounded up illegal immigrants in U.S. cities, because federal agentshad no place to detain them. But he said that is changing under thenew leadership at the Department of Homeland Security.

He encouraged local police to round up illegal immigrants, andpromised that the federal government will find places to house them.

"If you pick up 50 or 100 of them, you can call the National Guard,"he said. "Put them in tents."

He also said he did not support educating illegal immigrants or havingtheir U.S.-born children become automatically U.S. citizens. But hesaid those would be harder to repeal.

DeLay also said he strongly supports legal immigration, which he saysmakes this country stronger.

[CAN] Minutemen gear up for CanadaThe Globe and Mail / August 12, 2005The Minuteman Project is organizing operations in 11 northern statesand eight Canadian provinces for October missions to protect theUnited States against invaders from the north.http://newsletter.splcenter.org/cgi-bin4/DM/y/epmY0HluRh0L1h0DcOc0EI